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This paper explores the original identity of the Bassa Nge ethnic group, the adoption of the name Bassa Nge, the issue of identity regeneration, and its attendant problems and challenges to development from 1850 to 1991. The paper brings to the fore, who the Bassa Nge people were, why and how they migrated, as well as identity foray. It further sheds light on the bottlenecks on the part of progress in an attempt to further change the name – Bassa Nge to their original Nupe identity. This work, therefore, addresses the problems associated with identity chaNge and regeneration among the Bassa Nge people who migrated from Niger and settled in their present place of abode in 1850. The identity problem that the Bassa Nge has not been able to address since colonial times, coupled with the fact that another ethnic group bears a similar name – bassa, gives a nodding impulse to this paper coupled with the fact of historiographical problem in writing and reconstructing the history of the Nupe people now Bassa Nge in extant literature. The historical method of data collection and analysis to either advance, corroborate, or contend ideas has been adopted. Findings show that the Bassa Nge is now a Nupe minority group in the western fringes of Igalaland that occupies the Kogi Eastern Senatorial District. Like many other minority groups in Nigeria and other parts of the world, they are not free from marginalization. There is also the problem of nationality questions relating to micro-nationalism. Also, the migration and the subsequent merger of the Nupe ethnic group now called Bassa Nge with another Bassa migrant group that originated from Fulani Bororo in 1917, mean that they are gradually losing their cultural identity. This made some Bassa Nge elites from the time past see the need for an identity reversal which has further disunited Bassa Nge aborigines along diverse opinions. This research will serve as a foreknowledge on identity regeneration among Bassa Nge on the general history of Nupe

Bassa Nge, Development, Identity, Migration, Regeneration,